Kyle Kuzma is slowly getting back to his normal workload and as he plays in his native Midwest, Kuzma is seeing his minutes restriction increase by about four minutes Tuesday night’s matchup against the 2-5 Chicago Bulls.
Although Kuzma’s minutes restriction was increased to 22 in the Lakers previous matchup against the San Antonio Spurs, the third year forward only played 16 minutes and scored five points in the game. Part of that was likely because of the Lakers strong performance with the frontcourt of Dwight Howard and Anthony Davis to fill some of their other minutes.
Kuzma has been understandably out of rhythm in his first two games, which he discussed with ESPN’s Eric Woodyard.
“I haven’t really practiced, just kind of been in the games and just trying to learn and get my rhythm from there. But it’s a process, and I’ve kind of been treating this road trip with the first couple games as kind of my preseason,” Kuzma told ESPN.
The Lakers have the luxury of bringing back Kuzma as slowly or as quickly as they want. The team has been playing so well as of late that they don’t desperately need him, as they did at times last year. Although he hasn’t gotten his rhythm back, the good news for the Lakers is that they have LeBron James and Anthony Davis leading the way while several role players are filling their roles better than expected.
If the Lakers take care of business, Tuesday could also be a potential opportunity for Kuzma to soak up some more possessions if the Lakers are able to put away what has been a disappointing Bulls team rather early on.
